Cushion spring



June 27,- 1933.

I Y BY ATTORNEY.

c. J. THOMAS 1,915,907

. -GUSHION SPRING Filed May 28, 1950 INVENTOR.

' in this Patented June 27, 1 933 OFFICE:

CHARLES J. THOMAS, 0F LANSDOWNE, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR T0 KIWI MFG.00., INQ, OE PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARECUSHION s mme I a asia ts. a 2 9:. a e t was T s wrest- 1 re at is suhi? spr g an mer e i ela l t en s d, 1 assemblies to form an innercush1on member in 'niatti'esses, pillows, and similar cushion elements.i l

There has been a great deal of activity art heretofore looking to theprovi sion of spiings' and spring assemblies would furnish the greatestspring efiiciency with the lowest possible assembling costs. l m st casenst pr ng as mbl s have been provided a series (if-juxtapos d ng'devies' ngagmg adjacent portions of tlie'spjrings to place them' underlateral restr nt la ve to pliw other In ome case such iiiat assemblieshave been housed in wlov eii fabric'conta'iner's. As delivered to thuser heretofore, these mat assemblies have been of certainstandardpredieterrriined' sizes notcoincided the sia'es 'of mattressesor sis i; i e i ed to be ade b th mattre anufacturer, and he has beenconcerned v i l e'i wssi i at m t e h r. to add add ticna jspri g unitsto thepreformedass m lvb l 'e ove ert in f th nn t r m the ass mbly i iy dsd- W th h ac itie available "to him this ha b en diflic'ult. f jo' fi r, h ri sdi ii vsa lfiliol v e gii'g' appre i ly ba he 9s o the springma ass mbli s, ha e be e i i r lp i heretoforej'ln' reducing metall c noses ncldentto 'the relative movement between cent spring elements; Therehave also in the past been some attempts to producespr ng units each ofwhich was deformed to form 116.0 mere somr me i k ns Q' f nte locking'devicesso as to elimin ate independent mesha i l use? ast ni evic s anto permit direct locking of the springs together. These attempts inthepast have been relay vly siwcs fl W ns o sr i fat r which a ej r fiv'umm r d fOllQWS i :13

the" great inajt mityk if 'such devices it has been attempted to deformthe spring so thatthere w fbien one h l f hesp i g a ma e 0 kingelement, and the other halffa 'female l cking. e ement W tl q eq en ess' y forms 'whichin certain instances have,

elements in order to bring the proper coop- Grating locking portionsinto juxtaposition, which interferes materially with the speed and easeof assembly and to such a degree as to militate against the use of thedevices; in most of these device s it was necessary to use tools toinsure proper interlocking connection between the complementary portionsof the Spring elements, such tools as pliers, tweezers; and the'like;certain of the prior-"art devices only locked adjacent springs againsttensile strains and were liable to come open when a pair of adjacentsprings were subjected to lat eral compression in some of theillustrations of prior art the respective upperfand lower surfaces ofthespring mat assembly were not smooth, so as to-facilitate theimposition of the filling material but, on the contrary were possessedof protuberance's which were undesirable; and, o f great importance, theprevionsatte npts in thefield have evolved spring mat assemblies whichwere noisy and hence tion of a springyto provide a spring mat as-,

sembljr, in which integral portions of the springs form interlockingconnections with adjacent springs, which is simple, economical andquietyto provide a spring unit with a plurality ofsubstantiallyidentical integral locking elementsyto provide an improved form ofinterlocking connection" between spring elements which 'is substantiallyfree from play;'to provide 'a 'pl urality of spring elements which canbe easily and quickly interlocked by hand without the use of pliers'orsimilar tools; to provide a'spring'assembly formed of a 'plurality ofrelatively interlocked springs the upper and lower surfaces of which aresubstantially free of-p-rotuberances; to provide a plurality of springshaving integral locking lugs arranged for'inter- Ris ng ag men by man puio ft springsf ditfierent from any flexing" that might arise from normaluse of the assentbled springs; in addition to other objects andadvantages as will become more apparent as the description proceeds.

In the accompanying drawing;

Fig. 1 represents a perspective of four springs in assembled relationaccording to this invention with one of the springs broken away toprevent confusion,

Fig. 2 represents a perspective of the manner of looking a pair ofsprings according to this invention with the springs partially brokenaway, and

Fig. 3 represents a fragmentary perspective of the interlocking unitformed by the complementary portions of a pair of adjacent springs.

According to the present invention the springs, as 10 and 11, may be ofthe hour glass or any other type and terminate at the top and bottom,respectively, in upper turns 12 and 13 and lower turns 14 and 15, one ormore of the lower turns may be treated and act the same as an upper orend turn, as will be obvious. The respective upper and lower turns maybe in a substantial plane as is common and the free ends of the springsmay be locked, or open as disclosed for illustrative purposes in Fig. 1.At a suitable distance from the free end 16 of a spring there are formedintegral, resilient, substantially closed, generally radially extending,triangular lugs 17. As the lugs on all of the springs, and on all sidesof thesprings, are substantially identical, but one will be described indetail. The upper turn 12 is bent outwardly in an acute angle as at 18in the formation of a leg 20 of the triangular locking lug. Leg 20,although starting out in the common plane of the turn 12, is bentdownwardly in its juncture with the integral base 21 into which itmerges and which extends arcuately parallel to turn 12, but in a planepreferably lower than that of the end turn 12. The base 21 of thetriangular locking lug merges, in an acute angle, into the leg 22,which, in turn, inclines upwardly to form an acute angle 28, mergingagain into the end turn 12. It is to be noted that the knuckles formedby the junction or mergence of legs 20 and 22 with the turn 12aresubstantially and preferably in contact. There may be a gap betweenthe knuckles, the desirable thing (although it is not essential) beingthat the gap, if any, between these knuckles be small enough to preventthe passage of a wire of the thickness of the turn-of wire, forming thespring, without flexing the wire of the triangular locking lug. It willbe understood that after flexing the turn 12 to open or widen the gapbetween knuckles 18 and 23 release of the turn 12 will permit the partsto spring together owing to the inherent re silience of the wire. Italso will be understood that the opposite cooperating triangu" larlocking lug on end turn 13, is formed in substantially the same manneras has just been described for locking lug 17 on end turn 12.

With the individual springs formed with a'pl'urality, preferably four,of diametrically oppositely formed triangular lock-ing lugs, it will beunderstood that the springs may be arranged and seized by the operatorin any order in which they may fall in the formation of a spring mat, asit makes no difference which locking lug is locked first or last andthere are no distinctions as to male or female locking elements. Theoperator, in order to assemble a given pair of springs, (and the sameoperation continued indefinitely completes a mat of a desired area)takes a spring in each hand, brings them toward each other with theupper turn 12 of one spring at substantially 90 to the upper turn 13 ofan adjacent spring so that the closed end formed by the substantiallyabutting knuckles 18 and 23- of looking lug 17 on one spring, are inalignment or actual contact with a leg 20 of the opposite complementarylocking lug. This brings the parts to the position shown in Fig. 2. Thespring wire, being resilient, may flex about the junction of legs 20 and22 with the base 21 of the lug, so as to open wider the gap betweenknuckles 18 and 23, permitting legs 20 and 22 of one lug to slide intothe open space defined by the parts of the other triangular locking lug,after which the inherent resiliency of the wire of the spring may causethe triangular locking lug to close so as to bring the knuckles 18 and23 into close relation so that the one lug is held within the other.downwardly so that the end turns 12 and 13 are in a substantial plane,when the parts will assume the position shown in Fig. 3, in which legs20 and 22 of each triangular locking lug are engaged from beneath by thebase element 21 of the other lug, while the curved portions of each pairof legs are in contact with each other so as to minimize to the point ofelimination, play or lateral motion of the springs, either from ortoward each other.

It will be observed that with the parts as shown in Fig. 3, the innerlug, with its knuckles 18 and 23 in substantial contact, resistscompressing action tending to force Spring 10 is then turned themfurther together, whereas the legs of the complementary lug frictionallyengage and constrict upon the legs of the first leg. Pressing of onespring toward the adjacent interlocked spring is resisted by thefrictional engagement of both sets of legs of the complementary lugs,while pull of one spring away from another increases the frictionalengagement pressure of the legs assisted by the resilience of the outerlug.

It will be observed that in order to disconnect the springs, it is butnecessary to is attached to its cooperating juxtaposed lug in the samemanner, which is Well Within the resilient range of the springs asformed.

It Will be noted that the springs as thus assembled' require no toolmanipulations, and

yet are so firmly interlocked as absolutely to prevent undesiredunlocking operation in i any normal use of the springs, and yet, thatowing to the peculiar locking assembly, the freedom of operation of themat assembly is maintained. It Will be obvious that the lookinglugsaccording to this invention'may be applied to other turns of thespring than .i the end turns, andif desired the locking legs instead ofall being bent from the plane of the terminal or other turn, in the samedirection, may be turned in difierent directions and suchmodificationsare to be construed as Within the scope of this inventionunless othervvise limited by the appended claim.

I claim: In a spring mat assembly, a plurality of springs each having anend turn in a common substantial plane,

at least four identical locking lugs formed on each end turn inarcurately spaced relation, each lug comprising i a radially extendingprojection having a pair of inwardly converging legs and each luginclined out of the substantial plane of the end turn and also out of aplane perpendicular of the plane of the end turn to the same identicaldegree of inclination, and so arranged that any selected lug of onespring may have interlocking engagement with any selected lug of anadjacent spring in the assembly, that said interlocking engagement maybe had by'selectively engaging either lug Within the other, said lugs soarranged I as to permit interlocked relation Whilemaintaining-theirespective end turns in the common substantial plane.

Signed'at Philadelphia, county of Philadelphia', and State ofPennsylvania, this 27th 7 day ofMay, CHARLES J THOMAS.

